


Of Those Who Walk the Path of Ancients

by Jayna_Milan



Category: Eldemore
Genre: A good number of people die, AU, AU Chaos, Alternative universes everywhere, Am I even labelling OCS correctly?, Am I one of the only non-staff writing fics?, Ancients, At least relatively, But it's okay because it's AU?, Counter parts maybe the results of sillyness and fangirling, Crackpaings, Crackpairings everywhwere, Cute gays, EVERYONE PREPARE FOR A WIERD SLIGHTLY CRACKY FIC, Eldemore - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Grammar may not be the best, I AM THE TAG PIRATE, I can't shut up, I regret nothing and also everything, I subsitute everyone's reality with my own, I will potentially help it spread like a virus, I'm a tag Pirate!, Is also uploaded on Deviantart, Just ask Bena, Just kill me now, LONG CHAPTERS ARE LONG, Likley OOC-ness spread throughout, M/M, Much to Sorren's Regrets, Partly because I don't know what all is nessecary in a tag for this fandom, People meet thier counterparts, SORREN'S PANCAKES, So Far every chapter is over 4000 words, So that's a thing, Some things in this would be practically impossible if canon, Sorren And WIlly are apparently older than canon, Space and Time Shenangians, Sphye convinced me of a ship, Story is based on a long series of dreams, The amount of tags this fic will have will be ridiculous, The inaccuracies in this ought to be wild, The sheer lack of canon, This story is going to be LOOOOONNNG, This story will hurt me at least, Willy and Sorren are parents, Willy isn't a good influence, Y'know what, You must like reading tags, Zombies not Zombies, because my imagination is too powerful and too random, but it's okay it's a self-indulgent fic for the both of us, far from canon, idk - Freeform, partly because I can't remember how to spell things for my life, rated for violence and the like, self-indulgent fic, so have fun with that if you don't find this complete garbage, so many headcanons, so much canon breaking, tags will be added as needed, totally not stealing tags and going through eld fics to make sure I get everyone in
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 01:37:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9635009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jayna_Milan/pseuds/Jayna_Milan
Summary: A halfborn with a mysterious background, Jayna, awakens from a long slumber in time, a mysterious prophecy is to be fulfilled. She,  Sorren and Willy's hyperactive adoptive daughter (who is basically the sealer yet not) Ryna, and the bird dads must find the Children of Fate (not literally) before Eldemore and another mysterious world face mass destruction that none of the Ancients would be able to prevent. However, this does not mean shenanigans are out of the question.Summary is W.I.P. Seeing I'm terrible at summaries.Slightly Co-Written by my Roommate, Zeno of Eldemore and Ryna-Emellis of Deviantart, she may be more active later.





	1. Chapter 1: A Violent Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter can be found on: http://jayna-milan.deviantart.com/
> 
> I decided to add the series onto this site thanks to Sphye and because it seems like most Elde fics are located here?
> 
> I'm honestly really anxious posting this here, but at the very least it'll be another back up seeing my roommate and I enjoy this story thus far.
> 
> You can find some characters in my charahub (coming soon): https://charahub.com/user/Jayna-Milan
> 
> and as my eldsonas

 

We were travelling along a small wooden path, it was only slightly bigger than a deer trail; a small travelers’ path that only a few people used- not nearly as big as any of the main roads. It was peaceful, the sun shining through the leaves which provided decent shade, the breeze was nice and cool in comparison to the blazing summer sun, and I could smell the salt of the sea, and hear the roar of the waves in the distance- we were quickly approaching the port town of Silverport. It was not long ago- two years in fact- that we awoke to this new, strange world…. Half of that time was spent in the ruins of my homeland….learning a new tongue and teaching a stranger my own- the process was extensive and strict but it seemed to work at least a bit. The other was spent travelling with said stranger……practically forced to join a strange group…and now I’m own my own…. I hope Seraphina was right…. I’m not too sure if I’m ready for this world or not. My thoughts were interrupted but a loud yawn coming from my shoulders, I take a glance over at the blue rune dragon, Tael, or as I call him occasionally “Jingle Jangle” due to his… rather…. unhealthy obsession with bells.

“How long do you think it’ll take us to find this guy? I mean seriously, Jayna, it took us months to even get to this town Seraphina told us to go to…. How do we even know this ‘old friend’ of yours is still even there anyway?” Tael chirped at me exasperatedly.

  “…..I don’t…know…..I’m more worried about speaking to people….. if I’ve gotten their tongue down or not…..Or if I offend them by somehow being rude and I’m too ignorant to know…?” I replied quietly, the insecurity dripping from my voice.

This only caused Tael to sigh, “You know, kid, you really make me wonder if you’ve got your priorities straightened out or not.”

Normally being called a child would annoy me. …..Admittedly he has every right to call me one at points. I have the Physical appearance of a young adult, but I know so little of this world I may as well be a fumbling toddler. However, when it came to some things, Tael had no right to call me a child.

 “Tael, I know what is important and what is not, but have you ever thought that we would need to ask around for some clues and blend in with our surroundings? You can’t talk for me you know. Nobody else understands you….or at least it’s very likely that no one can understand you,” I said firmly and calmly but with bits of irritation slipping through.

This made Tael fluff up in surprise causing some blue feathers to go flying, and made my trusty partner and Elkrin mount, Rose Mary Pippit, or Pippit for short, give out a loud snort and shake his head, almost as if he were criticizing Tael, likely for not thinking of it and making me upset- maybe even throwing in an insult or two.

“Why you tick-ridden-“ Tael growled but I cut him off before he started another dispute with Pippit.

“Anyway, I doubt Seraphina was lying…. She had a special….magical air to her…. It’s hard to describe…. But it’s very similar to my mother’s.”

“Wait, your birth mother or the Ancient?” Tael replied, trying to hide that he had his own suspicions.

“Like the Ancient.” I responded firmly. I knew how Tael felt about the Anicents; he didn’t trust the most of them and was very superstitious and believed them to be bad luck due to his own mishaps with them.

“Oh boy, if that old lady is like any of those big lugs we’re definitely in over our heads,” Tael said very unenthusiastically, rolling his eye as he spoke.

Tael then tilted his head like a confused Dire Wolf and asked, “Besides… Jayna? What kind of friend would you have that is still alive from all those years ago!?”

“I don’t know…. So I really don’t know what to expect,” I said quietly, the question has obviously been on my mind for quite some time now.

“Also, what do you think of those….watch….crow….bunch? They sure seemed like they were hiding a lot from us, do you really think they’re trustworthy?” Tael asked.

I gently pulled out the egg I was harboring in a small protective pouch I was carrying underneath my clothes to keep it warm. It still had a blood stain on it. I gently stroked the orb of life.  

“Well, Tael, I’m one of them now… not like I had much of a choice but they seem like good people…. Still mysterious to me, but thanks to them I got somewhat of a start in this world, and Sorren didn’t seem that bad- so I think they’re trustworthy.” I responded, before gently putting the egg back into it’s pouch so it can incubate.

….Tael wasn’t the trusting kind, and he was always the one to complain, so I usually had to deal with it. It’s all I can do… it’s thanks to that little Rune Dragon and his ancestors that I won’t live a life of solitude anymore.

“Oh yeah, don’t you have to meet up and get mentored by him and some Captain guy while we’re there too? While you’re supposed to tell them about your-“

Tael was cut off by a sudden explosion from the town nearby filling the sky with ash, dust, and remnants of wood and stone, which dispersed and fell like rain back to the ground, even to the forest, which caused us all to flinch and make an attempt to shield our eyes.

Unlike most Elkrin, Pippit was not set into a panic after such event, instead I felt his muscles tense up, as if he was preparing himself for battle and looked back at me waiting for me to make a decision and command, his eyes reading “You say the word and I’ll get you to the scene in a split second.”

I pulled my hood of my forest-green cloak over my long, thick, curly red hair, and withdrew my blade from its scabbard. Despite my upbringing- I had to taken on special defensive training and now was a time to use it.

“Let’s go,” I said with confidence and Pippit went from a steady canter to a full-fledged sprint, I ducked down and over his neck to avoid getting smacked by and low branches and to help Pippit propel himself further- the forest seemed to be flying past us.  Within a few graceful leaps we were in town, as blood-curtling screams filled the air and many ran away in panic towards the woods I just left, some leaping out of the way of the graceful elkrin- one who knew well enough how to avoid plowing down innocent people, but as we drew closer to the site of the explosion, to what appears to be part of some battle, Pippit had to skid to a sudden stop. More and more people were fleeing, pushing and shoving in panic, others rescuing people from the giant piles of rubble ahead that seemed to be remants of homes and businesses; all of it making the remnants of the roads jammed with people, leaving no room for Pippit to leap over any civilian without harming any others. The Stag huffed as I browsed the area for any opportunities.

A few market stalls caught my eyes, and I barked out a command for pipit, which he followed immediately, “Pippit, to the rooves!” The White-Tail Elkrin gracefully leaped over a group of civilians causing some to yell and shriek in terror, then pipit crashed through some of the roofless stalls causing merchandise of all kinds to fly everywhere and breaking quite a bit of it. Some of the greedier and poorer of the mass shoved through the crowd trying to catch any trinkets, silks, or even scattered food that flew in every direction- further fueling the chaos that surrounded us. Finally Pippit heaved himself off the final stall, his disastrous sprint propelled us through the air about three meters and he managed to leap over the people and onto one of the many rooves of the tall, two-three story buildings that surrounded us. From here we could get a clear view of the battle, two titans were duking it out in the middle of the city. Their battling and movements causing further destruction as their feet along could crush a building easily. One clearly had the advantage- the other had many deep wounds that appeared to need immediate attention and it was barely able to keep fighting.

 I recognized the injured one and yelled out, calling to my old “friend”, “TELLLERRRRR!!!!”

This made Tael puff up in shock once again, “Wait, WHAT!? Teller!? Those are the ancients, Snafu and Nawat! You’re friends with one of THEM?!?”

I ignored him and saw one of “Teller’s” ear tufts move in acknowledgement while the blind ancient continued to fight off the ever aggressive Snafu.

“Pippit, we need to aid him!” I exclaimed, and before I could even finish what I was saying Pippit began to leap from rooftop to rooftop. The heat of the sun blazing down on us- crashing around over the remaining rooftops the rooves and breaking some of the old porcelain tiles- making a quick and seemingly reckless approach towards the titans. I began to crouch from his back, and from this movement he knew what he was going to do. Tael hopped on top of Pippit’s head in between his antlers, and yelled “I hope you know what you’re doing kid!” As we approached the giant grey mass I leapt off of Pippit’s back and landed on Teller’s large one, I proceeded to run up his neck, my short sword’s magenta color gleaming in the midday sun, I ran on top of Teller’s head and used it as a launching pad, I landed on the startled bringer of chaos’s head, before he could react and shake me off I sunk my blade and dug it into his head, burying it in deep in his muscles but not breaking into his skull. I heard sizzling- the handiwork of my blade and the ancient began to screech and fling his head around using his long neck as a whip trying to fling me off as I held onto the blade and he made his own wound worse, deeper and much larger- after the third swing the blade let go of his flesh and sent me hurtling towards the rooftops- something what would normally kill any of the races but My impact was greatly cushioned by a sturdy, fluffy, Elkrin and a special charm I had carved into my body. It broke a few bones- on each of us- but nothing that couldn’t heal with time. The furious Ancient roared at me in protest, and began to charge up a breath attack, that was before large fangs dug deep into his neck- saving us. My strategy worked! My attack distracted him enough that Teller could get in a good blow and end the fight before it could cause more destruction- and likely the death of at least Teller and me. Clearly defeated, the rouge ancient conjured a portal which began to absorb him, forcing Teller to let him go. Saving Teller, the city, and myself from impending doom.

After a few minutes of panting, teller shifted to a smaller elkrin-sized form, taking him out of view however around the same time I heard teller’s telepathic voice call out calmly, “It’s been many years since I’ve been called that name.” Within a blink Teller was suddenly in front of us, startling Tael, myself and even Pippit a tiny bit. He gently leaned his head down and sniffed my scalp. “It is you, little one, one who was forgotten by almost all.” I hugged his head and the normally solemn sounding ancient chuckled a bit. “I missed our days together- it was one of the few times that has brought me joy- raising you along with your mother.”  Once I let go of his head he slowly shifted himself into his human form, his wounds looked far worse in this form than in the other.

 He spoke to me with his actual voice and it sounded very weak, “Snafu….. suddenly…,” before he collapsed onto the roof top. I lay there defeated, and worried sick about my old friend, tears spilling out of my eyes….. I couldn’t….I couldn’t lose another loved one…. but… there was nothing I could do, pipit nor I could stand- let alone carry him and most people would probably just shoo Tael away!

We laid there, helpless for a few hours, the blinding sun scorching us all, my skin was burning to a crisp and flies kept pestering our wounds- already trying to use them as food sources and to lay their eggs in. The gulls glided in circles above us waiting for our chests to stop heaving. The time we spent there alone, really felt like days, when suddenly a reddish sea-serval leaped up onto the roof top. The She-cat kept persistently trying to pull off the red blind fold that was on his head. 

“Leave him alone!” I yelled out to the serval who just meowed at me and continued to insistently pulling at the bandanna.

 Tael hopped in front of me and chirped, “She’s trying to help us! She recognized his magic and came to help!”

“Oh….. Thank you, sea serval,” I thanked her honestly, to which she responded with a huffing noise making Tael jump up and exclaim, “Oh, yes! Coming!” Tael hopped over and helped the she-cat loosen the blindfold from the ancient’s head. After about a half-hour struggle the she-cat bounded off the rooftop with the long piece of red fabric.

I lay there on the hot roof top under the scorching sun as I waited for the serval to return for help- by the feel of it, I had a broken leg and a few broken ribs, while Pippit had three broken ribs himself. We were worse for wear, but with magic healers we would be able to recover fairly quickly. At least in comparison.  The heat however might make us succumb to heatstroke first, and after a couple of hours…. I too passed out- hoping to not become a meal for the gulls- and my vision and dreams began to fade to memories.

*~*

After _THAT_ sudden traumatic event I suddenly awoke to find myself on the ground, in the special clearing in my homeland where my mother used to stand watch, assorted carves stones which made up the center, cut into a particular symbol that I didn’t understand, the local flora of bioluminescent, light blue lilies bloomed around it- the treetops shaded most of it but it allowed sunlight to trickle down through creating patches of sunlight onto the stone adding to the area’s beauty.  I awoke with a few faces of strangers peering down at me, with only the familiar gaze belonging to Pippit.

Among the strange faces were a blue rune dragon, one that appears a bit more mammalian in the face than most- definitely part of the native sub-species and I already felt a strange connection to it….. did it somehow bond to me….? Another face was that belonging to a strange man with heterochromia- just like me- with one eye being a normal-looking blue human eye the other looked rather….different…..and had a red iris. I never seen an eye like this belonging to any members of the forest, and my mother never really taught me much about the outside world, I couldn’t help but stare in fascination for a bit until something else strange caught my eye- a crow with glowing blue eyes. The man then spoke a few words to me, his voice solemn and emotionless as he spoke in an entirely unrecognizable tongue. I tried speaking out to him, “Who are you, what are you, and how are you here?” but my words fell on seemingly deaf ears, he didn’t understand a bit of what I said. He didn’t seem like an enemy- but he didn’t seem all too friendly either. If anything, coming here, to me, was just a mere objective.

Suddenly, my attention was torn away from the strange man by I a chirp, “So…. I’m the one who was supposed to bond to her and her destined partner? Huh, I always imagined it would be my brother who would be partnered with her not me…… What a pain.”

It was only now did I realize that I was surrounded by many, many, rune dragons, of various hues, mainly ones who were blue, yellow, green, orange and white with a handful unfamiliar types of Rune dragons scattered here and there.  

Catching my attention again the blue one next to me sighed then spoke up again, “Anyway, I will be your translator for now so you can understand what this bird-guy is saying- and because of our new bond and your blood you can understand me now thanks to the gift your mother bestowed upon my kind.”

“o-okay,” I responded hesitantly, this was all too confusing right now.

I stood up off the cool stones and I could see the rune dragons surrounding me celebrating, and I heard the strange man speak in his tongue again and making a small gesture. “He wants you to follow him, and he’ll begin teaching you his language.”  The man walked past me and his crow flew off of his shoulder, landed on my head, and began to roll around in my mass of curly hair, I stood there for a few moments waiting for the insistent crow to stop- but needless to say he didn’t seem like he’d be stopping anytime soon. So I turned around to find that the strange man didn’t stop to wait but continued on towards my deserted village- then there, was the real shocker…. I mean sure I was the only inhabitant for some time but now… the village I once knew and loved were desolate, crumbling ruins and the forest was reclaiming it by the day looking at it. Many of the homes were now only being held up by the many trees that grew within the structures or were just completely hollow skeletons of their former glory. I fell to my knees at the sight, causing the crow to temporarily stop its ritual.

 “No….this couldn’t be my home……it just couldn’t be…,” I thought out loud, it felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. I just sat there staring at it, tears of horror coming out of my eyes, as I stared at my home and saw the strange man disappear behind a building as if this sight was normal. 

Many hours had passed and after what seemed like ages the blue rune dragon hopped over to me, I could easily read the pity coming out of his eyes.

 “I’m sorry to break this to you kid, but, you’ve been frozen in stone for generations now, ever since the Oblivion War. You and that stag of yours.”

The creature hopped into my lap and allowed me to pick him up, and I began to cry into his soft body, while pipit laid down behind me, resting his head atop of mine. Eventually all the rune dragons decided to give me some space and go about their daily business. ….I stayed like that until nightfall….

“Hey kid, let’s go meet up with that Sorren guy and get you some food in your belly and a nice warm bed,” The rune dragon said to me, breaking the long-drawn out silence, to which I merely nodded in response.

“By the way, my name’s Tael, and I already know your name, you’re the legendary Jayna. I promise from here on out I’ll help you out and we’ll become the best of friends. So no worries okay?” The rune dragon chirped happily, trying to lighten the mood, tilting his head at me with a gentle smile on his face- to which I responded with a “thank you,” a forced smile of my own. I stood up slowly, my knees were weary from the hours I spent kneeling and began to walk towards the ruins alongside Tael and Pippit. The cobblestone roads were surprisingly not entirely overgrown and I tested the old stones with my feet- not the best but not the worst either.

Tael seems to have noticed my observation and explained, “My ancestors and my clan have tried to take care of this place as best as we could, because we made it our home here ourselves. It became a city of sorts for us forest dwellers. Needless to say there is only so little that a rune dragon can manage; and besides we have some glassworks in town too, and BOY can they complain more than I do about things!” After about a ten minute walk, we finally approached the building that the mysterious man was staying in, there was a large tree in the center of the building with its branches supporting the building and the tree top had become the new roof, there were tons of rune dragon nests scattered across the branches and more by the sounds of it upstairs, amongst the sleeping rune dragons were two dire wolves and a liger cub. The only light other than the one emitted from the basement where no doubt the man was staying- were the from tiny harmless insects and the flora that called this forest home for as long as I could remember.  I began to walk down the stairs and saw what appeared to be a small home set up in this basement with the man’s gaze peering into a book, not even shifting his head to welcome my presence. He had a few book cases set up, a fire in some sort of fire keeper, another in an old stone oven, two beds, plenty of supplies, and was even using a large stone shelf as a desk, with a few candles scattered throughout the basement- their wax slowly melting and pooling down to the stone they sat on. How he even had this all carried here was a mystery to me, all I know is that it looked like he has been here for at least a week. Not knowing what else to do I laid down on one of the “beds”, it was more so a nest in comparison to the cot next to me.

“All the rune dragons must have got together and made you a nest for you to sleep in!” He said as he dove into the “nest.” The outer rim had indeed been woven from twigs it was however barely visible under all the colorful feathers and scraps of fur that must have been taken from kills made by the predators from the town, they were carefully cut rather than torn so I assumed that it was the work of some glassworks.

After about an hour of silence the man turned around to face me- and suddenly cheeped like a small chick but at the same time it was oddly squeaky!? Along with the insistent chirping I felt something pecking at my chin- this sudden intrusion to my dream worked me up to find myself face to face with a baby crow in a strange place. He had glowing red eyes and didn’t look like a newborn- but most of his feathers were still in tubes but were somewhat emerging. The said chick then hopped- more so flopped- over and began to seemingly snuggle into my face. It was now that I noticed that the blanket I was under and part of myself was covered in bird poop. I then heard a girl’s voice call out excitedly, “Oh hey, you’re awake!”


	2. The Key

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter can be found on: http://jayna-milan.deviantart.com/
> 
> I decided to add the series onto this site thanks to Sphye and because it seems like most Elde fics are located here?
> 
> I'm honestly really anxious posting this here, but at the very least it'll be another back up seeing my roommate and I enjoy this story thus far.
> 
> You can find some characters in my charahub (coming soon): https://charahub.com/user/Jayna-Milan
> 
> and as my eldsonas
> 
> You can find Ryna as Zeno's Eldsona on Devinatart and you can find her on her charahub too: https://charahub.com/user/RenegadeJester

  
“Oh hey, you’re awake!” A female voice greeted me, I tore my gaze away from the baby crow to see a girl sitting next to me, she had long, slightly messy, light brown hair and tan skin- whether it was from getting tan under the sun or her natural skin color was a mystery to me for now. The only blemish being a scar on the side of her face at the right corner of her face pointing down towards the bottom of her jaw. Her blue eyes peered down at me and I can almost feel her energy radiating from her skin. Her voice brought me back to reality and notice a searing pain the back of my head, my rib cage along with the rest of my horribly aching body, my body was in intense pain.  
“So you’re the one who got Sorren that pink, glittery, mother’s day card huh?!” I merely looked at her in confusion…. Mother’s Day card? My gaze seemed to however go unnoticed or simply didn’t faze her as she rambled on and on about said card.  
“Ohhhh, man, I can tell you and me are going to be GREAT FRIENDS!” The girl then leaned down to hug me when suddenly the chick leapt up and bit her on her nose.  
“OWWW! Hey, _Killer! Chill! Okay!?_ I wasn’t going to hurt her!” The girl exclaimed, her voice all nasally as the tiny bird refused to let go. She reached up her hand to gently grab him and pry him off her face but he refused to let go. I sat up slowly and then began to gently tug at him myself. With her hands free she began to gently poke the little bird’s face insistently with her finger until he bit onto it instead and with that she set him back down on my lap.  
The tiny bird squawked at her defiantly before snuggling into my leg affectionately.  
“Let me tell you, Killer there has made it really hard to take care of you, ya’ know. Anyway, my name’s Ryna! Welcome to my humble hole of a home!”  
Ryna then began to ramble on and on how her and her dads built her home, I took this time to groggily look around at my surroundings. The room I was in was small, probably a guest room. The walls were a dull, comforting grass green stone walls until they met a dark wood paneling beneath. The walls were curved like the entire house consisted of domes and tunnels. At the roof of the dome of the room I was in was a beautiful circular window, made up of many glass shards, none of which were stained but inside of it were the symbols of a crow and an anchor. The shards of all different types made the room illuminated in many shapes and shards of light. The bed I laid in’s stand was carved into the wall, forming a little cranny in it. There was a dark wood desk, with a rather comfortable-looking leather seat sitting next to it. On top of the desk was a lantern with a new candle in it. Next to the desk was some sort of spikey- green plant. Not far from the desk and to the right of it was a circular shaped door. While to the left there was a large book shelf filled with many, many thick books and large scrolls. The carpeting appeared to be made up of soft, sleipnir hair, a seemingly common product of this new world. People must have huge herds of sleipnir bred specifically for their hair growing abilities, along with many professions that revolve on refining the harvested hair, dying it and crafting it into many different things.  
“…and because it’s a man-made cave-home it’s naturally stays at a cool temperature. Not too hot or not too cold, I mean I like it a bit warmer but that’s what fuzzy blankets and a nice fire are for~!” Ryna finished barely breathing in between every word.  
  
Finally after about a half hour of practically ignoring this poor girl, my memory came back to me of the recent events that somehow lead me to this place.  
“What…about…Teller?” I managed to croak out, suddenly making Ryna jump a little.  
“OH! That weird guy with the long red eye cover thingy? He’s being taken care of by this Elvian girl from the watch-crows. Did you know she was only one of a few Elvians outside of their forest homes?” Ryna rambled before continuing on, “She’s been ordered to take care of you and him- she’s a really odd one. A rock-collector- she’s shown me all sorts of shiny rocks! She’s really nice! Hey, what’s wrong? You look a little green.”  
Ryna then closely examined my face despite the little bird glaring at her. “I should go get her!” She announced before running off through the door, not giving a bit of time for me to respond. I could hear her feet stomping loudly as she ran through what appeared to be a hall, and then I heard her yell “HEY DOC! She’s awake and she doesn’t look so good!” I then heard a soft voice respond as she drug the elvian back into the room I was staying in.  
The woman looked a bit….atypical for an elvian, she bore a dark green cloak, her eyes looked sad and tortured, and her skin also reflected this otherwise she had the typical Elvian. Her hair was an extremely dull blond, almost a creamy-white color and other wise her body seemed relatively fit.  
She then pointed at me and exclaimed, “Look at her she looks far worse than she did when she was out cold!”  
“Oh my!” the woman gasped, but then her composure changed quickly as she examined me, and finally I managed to croak out, “It….hurrrrrtttssss……”  
“Oh, my apologies, I must of forgotten to give you some medicine for the pain today! Just give me a moment,” the mysterious doctor exclaimed before scattering off into the hallway, hopefully to concoct some sort of medicine for my pain.  
As we waited for her return, Ryna was chewing my ear off, but I didn’t necessarily mind it, it took my mind off the pain just a little, she seemed like she’d be a good, fun, crazy friend; and I haven’t had much time to have been able to enjoy myself after my long slumber through time.  
The woman came back with an herbal paste, apologizing profusely as leaves, herbs even some fungi fell were all now caught in her hair, as if she had to literally dig for the ingredients of the paste. Ryna helped me sit up so I could take the medicine with ease. The healer handed me a glass mortar, and I ate the wretchedly bitter substance.  
“I’m _so sorry_ , I’m usually not this scatterbrained, Jayna! I promise!” The woman pleaded, her eyes filled with guilt and worry.  
“It’s… fine...” I groan out as I re-positioned myself a bit, to get a bit more comfortable, then I looked at woman before me, “…but…may I ask doctor, what’s your name?”  
At the mention of the word “name” the woman’s eyes widened, and bulged out, almost as if I _summoned the Ancient of Oblivion casually_ instead of merely asking for her name.  
  
She quickly shook her head, and quietly said to me, with remorse dripping from her voice, “I’m sorry, but I never like to bother anyone with my name,” before she took off, leaving Ryna and I watching after her, concerned.  
“Yeah, that’s one thing I still don’t get either…. Poor thing, she must have gone through a lot, I mean… you can just… tell… by how she talks. She can’t seem to use magic anymore, but she is handy with magical herbs” Ryna muttered her voice suddenly calm and sullen, before perking up once again, “So that’s why I call her Mama Cedar~ all the other tree named are _overused, therefore mean less._ Besides! I like cedars, they’re pretty.”  
I merely nodded in agreement, and then realized that Ryna, the hatchling and I are the only ones who were in the room, “By the way, where’s Jingle and Pippit?”  
“Oh the elkrin and rune dragon? They’re helping out one of my Pa’s, Captain Willy. Like I said he’s a glass worker now, and it just so happened that the big ancient fight occurred in one of the rich corners, so right now everyone’s lining up to get new windows, and lamps and so on from him. Pippit you say…? He’s been helping cart things back and forth, while Jingles is trying to keep another Rune Dragon at bay, you’ll meet her soon enough.”  
After that we just sat there awkwardly in silence, I for the most part had no idea what to do with myself, I was still overwhelmed by everything, sitting next to a stranger, and just wanting something to calm my mind with and just have a bit of fun, and because all of this I was a bit antsy and honestly, Ryna seemed a bit antsy too.  She was twitching, twiddling her fingers, playing with her hair and tapping her foot, and on top of it all she was looking all over the room. When finally her attention seemed be caught on something out of my sight, she reached over and I heard a sliding noise, I’m assuming dragging something off of a shelf, because not even seconds later she had a small paper box in her hand and had a big grin on her face.    
  
“We can play with these!” She announced happily and loudly, “I wasn’t sure what we could do that didn’t require you getting up, but aren’t cards a great idea?”  
“But… Ryna, _how_ are we supposed to get cards from that box..?” I asked her, I was so very confused and all I got in return was a confused look from her, did I do something wrong? Is there something I don’t know?  Instead of leaving myself to panic internally, I continued on, worry now filling my voice, “and who would we give them to? Don’t we give them to people to show that we appreciate them and care for them…? That’s what an old lady said to me at least.”  
Ryna stayed silent for a bit and then finally laughed a bit and said, “Oh wow, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t of expected Sorren to teach you about playing cards, I’m guessing he was all serious Mr. Business face with you?”  
  
“Ummm…. For the most part…? I mean…. At points he… he….” I couldn’t figure out the wording, and it took me a bit to get around it, Ryna just sat there patiently, understanding that this tongue was new to me still, “he was more like a father…? Than _‘Mr. Business..?’_ at points? At first he was very reluctant to though, I can even say that we didn’t get along.” I confessed, hoping for dear life I actually understood my mentor, whom I spent for the most part, two whole years with.  
“Yeah, that’s my daddy for you. Anyway, these are a different type of card, these are playing cards, and they’re like game pieces.”  
Ryna then proceeded to open up the box, and delicately slid out a ‘card’ and handed it to me. I winced as I reached up to grab the card, noticing this Ryna sighed and said, “You should probably rest up and let that medicine kick in, but you can look at ‘em for now.”  
I continued to look at the card, it read aloud the word that was on the left and right rides of it, joker, and had the image of an otterling jester on it. The hatchling, my blood-bonded crow looked at it curiously for a few moments before biting onto it and pulled it out of my hand. He then hopped towards the foot of the bed and laid on top of the image of the otterling, getting comfortable and seemingly showing he had no intent on giving the card back. I could feel his happiness.  
  
“He _really_ likes that word.” I said to Ryna who merely stated, “Huh. Strange little thing.”  
  
Ryna sighed then sat up and said, “Anyhow, you take a little nap, and I’ll do some homework done in the meantime, that way we can just have fun tonight.”  
I nodded, and slowly settled myself down, and managed to roll myself onto my left side, facing the open room, the hatching noticed this, picked up the card and waddled over. He set it down and began to play with it, being surprisingly gentle with it. I watched him until I nodded off into sleep.  
And just like before, my sleep began to fade into memories.  
  
The forest was lively, and I wielded my blade in my hand, practicing the movements my mother was instructing me on, her calm, yet loud and powerful voice behind me. After failing once again I growled in frustration and whipped the blade down so I was holding it at my side, facing the ground. “ _I don’t understand_ mother! Why do I need to learn how to fight?! We live here in _peace, don’t we?_ I used to _enjoy_ practice, but now you’re just making it harder and harder suddenly? What’s going on!?” I yelled before whipping around, and only seeing darkness in the background, my village and the forest _gone_.  
This was not _anything I remembered_ , I wandered into the darkness, and the further and further I walked it began to change into a golden light, and suddenly a table with cups and tea came floating in with a top hat. A gloved hand appeared out of the hat, grabbing the rim and began to flip it up-right, and a strange man emerged from the hat. He had long blond hair, golden eyes, he wore a suit with a tailcoat and was rather tall. He had a few piercings on his ear and his top hat contained a golden gear and some clock arms.  
  
“Oh my, and what brings you to my realm, my dear?” the man asked and his eyes flared up, the whites of his eyes suddenly turned black as he smiled. Ignoring this, I stayed calm, and the words that came out of my mouth, were not my own. “Sullivan sent me, the ancient of oblivion has gone mad, and I was directed to harbor half of my people in Eldemore, for their future would not be guaranteed in my lands anymore.”  
The man chuckled a bit, “Oh, Sully, he always was an amusing one, that explains how you even managed to _trespass_ into my realm. Doesn’t he even know what _madness_ were to arise if you were to meet your counterpart?”  
“He and I know what we’re doing, Numair, and we have a plan”  
“And I’d almost mistake you for the trickster ancient, come, my vixen. Let us have tea and discuss Sully’s theatrical this time. I want _every,_ juicy detail,” His grin, yet again haunted me, and I shot awake.  
Trembling, I lay there with my eyes closed. I had no idea what that dream meant, but it felt ominous, and the worst of all, was that my mother’s voice came out of my mouth.  
After a bit I opened my eyes and finally looked around, it was now darker out, and moonlight filtered down through the skylight, the candle still burned in its lantern.  
I could hear laughter and a loud voice from another room, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t make out what they were saying. The hatchling stirred, realizing I was awake, he yawned a little bird yawn, and stared at me calmly.  
Then I felt movement and I turned my head to see Tael was on the bed as well, he stumbled over to me gently and exclaimed, “Jayna, you’re awake! You had me worried kid, I began to think you’d never wake up!” He proceeded to rub up against my arm affectionately.  
It went silent in the other room, other than some quieter conversation.  
“Where’s everyone else _Jingles?_ ” I asked teasingly, to which he huffed but with a smile, “Maybe I would like it better if you were still asleep.”  
“Anyway, Willy just came by to visit now his work hours are over, he heard you were awake, and he’s excited to meet you, especially after some of the stories Sorren has told him.”  
Suddenly the heavy round, door slammed open and revealed a man wearing a burgundy long coat, reminiscent of a pirate’s, he wore a white blouse underneath, a bright red sash over the belt to his pants, which looked remarkably tight around his legs, showing off how muscular they were. He had red hair like mine, but his hair was straight and went down to his jawline, his chin supported a short beard that extended from two ends of a mustache that nearly connected underneath his nose. His dark hazel eyes greeted mine along with a huge grin on his face, his teeth surprisingly pearly white and clean. From what Sorren told me, and the portrait he secretly carried with him, this was his _“alt’evu”_ which means, his other half; his love of his life, Captain Willy. (A/N: I just ‘made the word up’ so umm if that’s an actual word, that’s going to be awkward)  
He practically leaped on me and began to rub my head with his knuckles and had an arm wrapped around me, holding me into place so he could continue with his….knuckle rubbing that for the most part hurt like hell with my wounds.  
“Ah, here’s my little money maker!” He half-shouted happily, and continued, “Welcome to the bird-family!”  
He then scooped me up and threw me over his shoulder, and snatched the hatchling’s joker card, and the hatchling bit onto the leg my pants coming along for the ride.  He carried me through a rather small hallway and into a larger room, it had an oval table close to the door that was surrounded by six leather chairs one of which was occupied with Ryna, another with Cedar. This room had more of the soft carpeting, it was of various hues of purple and yellow dotted the floor, a large, leather couch was a few feet away from the table, it was in a lower section of the floor curving around a giant fireplace, the walls themselves were bookshelves lined with not only books, but art supplies, sketchbooks, notebooks and stuffed animals as well. The couch was lined with stuffed animals.  On the floor between the couch and the fire place were giant cushions and another small table. A large dark brown direwolf lay on one and a brown and gold sea serval lay up against a familiar pink serval; next to them, Pippit laid on the floor, his head perked up and he watched Wily carry me into the room.  
I was unceremoniously flopped down onto a chair at the very end surrounding the wooden table, which made cedar rush over to me worriedly. After quick a quick examination to see if I was unharmed by Willy’s action, and gently helping the hatchling up to the table, she quietly settled back down to her seat.  
Willy then slid the cards right out of the box and began to move them around in his hands, “shuffling” Ryna explained to me, and he then began tossing out the cards to each of us. Ryna watched him with a skeptical eye, and the red serval suddenly leaped up onto the table, carrying various pouches in her mouth, dropping them in front of Ryna, Cedar and I, before leaping onto Willy’s shoulders.  
The mystery pouches were our wallets, “You can’t expect a card game to be fun unless there’s a _little_ risk and reward to it~”  
“DAD! You can’t expect Jayna to play poker!! We should start off teaching her something _simple_ , like Go Fish or Old Maid.”  
“Awww, come on Ryna, that’s going to be boring besides what better way to learn how to play a game and learn how to make a little bit of baubles?”  
“You just want to rob us of our baubles.”  
“What’s going on?” I asked uncertain, “Do you need money? I wouldn’t mind giving you some, I don’t have much, just a small allowance, You’ve helped me out so much-“ I began, opening up my wallet, about to shake out the few baubles I had.  
  
“Jayna! No, stop! He’s fine, we’re all fine, don’t worry!” Ryna almost shouted leaning over the table.  
Willy nearly sighed and said, “You have a lot to learn Jay.” His tone seemed to change as he had a mischievous smile and said, “Well, I guess I have a lot to teach ya then, Sorren can’t hog all the fun for himself.”  
  
In the end, we wound up playing old maid, we chose to add the Joker card to be used as the old maid, WilLy was to my right, cedar to the left and Ryna sat on the other side of Cedar. The hatchling watched and listened intently to the rules.  The deck was split and handed out, and he leaned over and looked at my hand as I received every card, once we were out of cards the hatchling squawked in disappointment. He hopped over towards Willy, and began to examine his cards, and the game begun. We all began to discard our pairs into the center, and as we did this I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, the hatchling was climbing up Willy’s elaborate attire and being swatted at by his sea serval.  
“The bird’s got to learn that Fiore is boss around here,” Willy chuckled as he tossed his last pair out of his hand.  
Two turns passed and I got a King of Clubs, a blue and white otterling, and a Queen of hearts, which made a pair and I threw the Queen down. Then came Willy’s turn, he took an ace of diamonds from me, a royal looking red and white otterling holding a scepter, and as he was about to toss a pair when got a vision, a sight more or less, of a top a head covered in red hair, peering down to see giant hands holding a hand of cards, one of which was the joker.  
I knew immediately what this was, I looked at the top of Willy and just as I began to shout “No! Don’t-!” The small bird leaped off of his head grabbing the card in one calculated move before he tumbled onto the table. Ryna was the first to react and threw herself across the table trying to grab the small bird, who quickly got himself up and leaped off the table and out of the way. He scurried and squeezed, underneath a nearby stand with a glass lamp on top of it, Fiore dived for him, but he made his escape and she began to stick her paw into the small hole, and the hatchling hissed at her.  
“That dang bird sure loves that card.” Ryna said a bit frustrated. “I think we have another hoarder on our hands,” Willy sighed, referring to what I assumed was the rune dragon mentioned before.    
Fiore then screeched and puffed up out of pain and frustration, and tried to pull out her paw from underneath the fixture, pulling out a tiny head latched onto her paw.  She lifted up her other paw, claws unsheathed and swiped down at the tiny bird, who quickly let go and dodged the attack. Fiore then sent a flurry of attacks, hissing at the tiny bird who only hissed back.  
  
I only sighed and then cleared my voice drawing Fiore’s attention, “I’m sorry Fiore, I’ll teach him manners,” and with that she huffed and padded away a few steps and had her back facing me, as she licked her “wounded” paw aggressively, her tail flicking violently from side to side, still furious, but seeming to understand that he is still a baby, so he could still painfully learn his lesson without needing to be hunted and killed.  
Willy and even Cedar couldn’t help but laugh, and Ryna got up out of her seat and said, “I’ll go get the killer,” as she headed towards the stand, and could barely slide her hand underneath, with growls as a response, but for once, she wasn’t bit and pulled out the bird with glowing red eyes and a Joker card in his mouth. She dropped him off onto the table in the center of all of us, he kept twisting and turning his head at all of us, daring us to take the card from him. Then an idea came into my head, and I had a feeling it was not my own.  
“You want to be called Joker?” I asked the tiny little bird. ‘Joker’ then dropped his card and squawked at me before hopping over to my hand and rubbing it.  
“Aren’t _any_ of those birds normal?” Will asked rhetorically. Joker ignored this and kept rubbing his head against my hand.  
That’s when I heard a flap open, and everyone’s attention was drawn to a hallway to the right of myself, the opposite side of the hallway next to me. The sound of wings flapping and a caw echoed through the halls, and coming flying into the room was a familiar pale-blue glowing eyed bird, Muzu. Muzu flew straight up to Joker and inspected him, and Joker did the same. Suddenly Muzu flopped over on top of the poor hatchling who was a third of his size and began to roll all over him, despite the many protesting squawks.  
Then the sound of a door opening and closing echoes through the hall and Willy shot up out of his chair and went running towards the sound, Pippit leaped over the couch and right next to my chair his antlers scraping the roof, he presented his back to me and looked at me like “come on, let’s go see,” so using my arms I heaved myself up onto him with Cedar’s help, I was more or less draped over his back and we all walked to see what the commotion was.  
As we walked through the hallway and made the turn to what was the door, we saw Willy spinning a now ticked and embarrassed Sorren around with his hands under his arms. (A/n: kinda like the traditional spin people seem to do when they learn they’re going to be a father)  
I could barely hear Sorren grumble, “Do you really need to do this every single time?”  
“Of course I do,” Willy responded without hesitating. “Can you put me down now?” Soren asked but practically demanded.  
“No. Never.” Willy said before carrying him bridal style, and he went running off into the room we just left, despite his mad dash their conversation was still audible.  
“Must you do this in front of everyone?” “Aw, come on, they’re all part of the bird family.” “Will, one is our co-worker.”  
“Ah, they all need to get used to this too.”  “Will. Not right now. I have dire news for us all.” At that Willy set him down and we all gathered around the table once more. With a blush still on his face, Sorren cleared his throat at the opposite end of the table of which I sat.  
“As you all know, the reason why my return was delayed was that I had to travel back to Alabaster city with Seraphina; Dark times are ahead, some event is going to put Eldemore in grave danger. Once this threat sets upon us, a group of individuals will be chosen; they will be the children of fate. Some will need the aid of an ancient artifact to find the rest, only they have a chance of stopping this threat. It is our duty to try and seek out not only where the threat waits, but the relic needed itself. However, the relic will not be easy to access, it was guarded by an ancient people, ones who spoke a long dead language, and we need the key to access it. Thankfully, two years ago, I unknowingly found the key, and that _is you, Jayna._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original notes on DA:
> 
> I'm finally back with Chapter 2! Edit: Currently finishing up chapter 3, it's nearly double the length of this one, but needs some detail work.
> 
> I find it really funny that in today in the Tea Party event that Numair mentioned going to have fun in alternate universes. Seeing that will be a big topic in this fic, and I literally finished this chapter around noon before I fell asleep (I live in the same time zone as the one Eld runs on. I just have a messed up sleep schedule aka none at all)
> 
> You'll see more development of the two new oc's in the near future, Ryna is my roommates and is rightfully in this story because she and I talked about this alot WAAAYYYYY back during The late Yuletide-Event, and then the Spring event as well. As Aus are always on our mind and when canon worlds cross into Au ones is even better to us XD
> 
>  
> 
> I wouldn't mind any feedback because I am worried about everyone being too OOC, and I know with my limited surroundings and experience the way how I make people talk will probably sound funny v.v


	3. Of Seas, Obsidian and Shopping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a new chapter! Sorry if you all don't really like this series. It's my first real attempt at writing my stories down and publishing them and the story in my head doesn't transition well onto paper, all I have to ask is to not judge me for this one at least?
> 
> Also if any of you are wondering, Jayna is a name I use often in my fics, hence I named myself that as a user-name and I wanted a name-like one, so yeah. ^^;;

Chapter 3- Of Seas, Obsidian and Shopping

The sky whirled above my head, this looked _like no hurricane mentioned before_ , the large wooden ship was being tossed violently around by the rampaging waves despite all of the spells and runes carved into it and cast on it. Blood-curdling screeches and thunder cracks _pierced and tore_ through the air as it exploded from above, the wind and sea howled around us. It was 360 degrees of pure, relentless **doom** , as Snafu and Gerdyn fought above our rescue ship. We have realized we were the ones in need of a rescue now. Suddenly, a bright light flashed as lightning struck the sphere of magic that surrounded the ship, the barrier surely couldn’t take this blast. My thoughts began to race, everyone on here was going to die, and once again, I couldn’t do a thing about it. I cursed at this fate and for whomever branded me with this obvious curse. I stared at the now cracking barrier in rage and defiance. I didn’t know how, but I wasn’t going to let anyone go down this time. Before I knew it, the magical barrier shattered like glass and then there was pain and darkness.

One can’t help but wonder, how I got into this mess.

 

Barely visible within the darkness of a cave, was a large sigil carved into the wall which was encrusted with moss, warily, I placed my hand onto the familiar yet strange symbol. The sigil began to glow a warm green color, lighting up many ancient runes on the wall which ate away at the moss, incinerating it. The runes were in an ever-so familiar lost language.  A large section of the rock slid back and to the left into the large stone wall, revealing a small tunnel into a room that was dark at first, but as I stepped on a stone runes yet again began to glow, faintly lighting up the faint room. Inside the room was a large furry mass, one of which I couldn’t tell who or what it was. I silently stepped forward, until my foot accidentally kicked a small rock, making a small cluttering noise as it rolled and tumbled away. The ears of the creature shot up and then its head whipped around, it’s glowing green eyes meeting mine. It was Snafu! The large Ancient roared at me, and I could barely grab an arrow to draw my bow as the ancient pounced on me. My mother’s voice calmly echoed in my head as my vision went to black and I released my arrow, “Do not fear one’s _own shadow_ , little one, _even if it no longer has a mind of its own._ ”

My eyes shot for me to find myself in a familiar setting, I was in my bedroom which was really a renovated part of the attic in Sorren and Willy’s house, and Ryna’s room at one point in time. The light smell of salt from the sea carried across my nose and gulls in the distance called out, disturbing the tranquil sound at the ever-beating waves. Someone must have opened up the window. My bed was partly buried in a nest of cushions, mostly red and dark blue in color. I used a lot of money from any odd-jobs I got while training or from helping Willy in his job- and schemes. My room was a temporary stay so I can be kept under watchful eye and until I had a home to call my own like Ryna.

My bed frame was somewhat normal but its base was a short but long bookshelf that surrounded it with a single step up, connecting the two outer most sides, one was a wall and another was backed up by a slightly raised section in the floor where it was connected to the window. An area large enough that I can practice a bit while still indoors if need be.  On the opposite side of my room was a giant cushion where I can sit along with Pippit who was just small enough he could come into the house. The large round cushion was surrounded by my dresser and wardrobe along with a wall of shelves that was filled primarily with books; ones of important studies others for pleasure reading at some point in the future. Any empty space was taken up by other personal objects.  The roof was sloped because this was an attic we were talking about, one of which had a lot of large equipment that was moved into a shed some time ago, so the room was rather spacious. A good place to keep me locked away and hidden indoors if needed.

It’s been a few months since I arrived, and I’ve been given that cryptic message from Sorren which still haunts me to this day in time. Lots of preparation had to be made but thankfully we were told we somehow had time on our hands due to it; The watch crows didn’t want to set us off on this journey quite yet, it could be later this year or next year until then, however this didn’t mean they weren’t going to give us duties to fulfil.

I stretched and sat up in my bed, Joker at my side grooming himself, Joker had grown to be half of Muzu’s size and all of his feathers came in, allowing him to fly, however, he was still very much a child in spirit and mind. Pippit raised his head in greeting before laying back down while Tael was nowhere in sight. It was then that my nose picked up a mouth-watering new smell, Pancakes! That explained Tael’s absence. My heart began to beat faster, my mouth began to water, and I let out a long, happy sigh. Pippit snorted at me, not understanding our love for Sorren’s pancakes. Ignoring him, I ran through the other part of the attic filled with parts, pieces of metal and barrels full of materials and glass shards, and ran down the first set of stairs. With the kitchen in sight, I stood at the top of the second flight, I bolted down thae set of stairs, and before I knew it, my foot suddenly got caught on something at the bottom of the stairs, sending me flying in the air. With my training, I barely managed to flip myself over the foreign object and crash on the hard-wood floor on my back. I immediately looked above my head to see a stump in the middle of the house, with a plate of pancakes on it. _When did a stump get here?_

A voice then rang out of the kitchen, interrupting my train of thought, “OH! JAYNA CANT SLEEP THROUGH THE PANCAKES!” Ryna called as she ran out the door just to stop and blink at the sight in front of her with “the stump” with pancakes on it and me laying on my back “Oh. Morning!”

 

“Morning Ryna,” I groaned a bit, before gesturing towards the stump behind me, which now only had a pancake and a half on it, “Why is there a stump in front of the stairs???”

 

“That’s…a good question. It’s kind of just been here, don’t understand how it walks or moves, but it does. It’s a good stump, I call it Steve.” She leaned and “pet” the stump, before continuing “Steve the Stump. He’s very loyal and friendly, and his bark is worse than his bite.” She then laughed and snorted at her own pun.

 

I playfully rolled my eyes much like how Sorren constantly does around Willy’s antics, and helped myself up, “I don’t think stumps normally move around like that Ryna, I’m getting weird….vibes from it? Like it’s watching us.”

 

She just shrugged “I dunno…but I’m sure we’ll figure that out eventually. _MEANWHILE_ , There are PANCAKES GETTING COLD. Come on!” She grabbed her by the arm and ran back to the table.

Ryna dragged me into the kitchen and shoved me into a seat, at one end of the table was Willy, scarfing down a giant stack of the sweet, tender, heavenly pastries? We called pancakes. Ryna, continued to devour her stack, while I stared at my space at the table which was currently empty, not even a plate was there, which was rather….unusual. I turned around and instead of being a small distance away, the stump was behind me, with an almost clean plate aside from some crumbs. Sorren then caught my attention as he flipped some more pancakes into the air and onto a plate, as he truned around, his “Kiss the cook apron” he got from Willy (Willy replaced ALL of his aprons once again) was clearly visible.

His almost stoic eyes landed on the stump behind me and he sighed, and sat the plate in front of me, muttering, “Stupid _stump_ ,” with a bit of an emphasis on stump, almost confirming my suspicions yet not revealing the identity of the thing behind me.

 “He’s NOT STUPID,” Ryna retorted with her mouth filled to the brim with pancakes, maple syrup slightly pouring out of her mouth as she pointed a spoon at Sorren, “he’s _MY FRIEND!!”_

 Without hesitation Ryna continued to dig into the pancakes stuffing her cheeks like a squirrel. Sorren just sighed and shook his head, if he said anything back, Willy would join in and the argument would last for ages.

  Behind me I heard growling as I saw Tael trying to pull a pancake out from underneath the stump. The fight lasted for another thirty seconds before it tore in half and Tael retorted “Get your own, bark face.”

From there I could have sworn I heard a light growl emanate from the stump.

Joker was down here as well, him and Muzu shared a stack they pecked apart and gobbled down. Mama Cedar as Ryna dubbed her, ate her portion of pancakes slowly, and quietly, ravishing ever last bite unlike everyone else in the house, with the exception of Sorren who finally got to work on his own stack.

*~*

About an hour later Ryna was laying on the floor with a full stomach, sick from over-eating once again, to which Sorren commented, “I told you not to eat another stack, but your eyes are always too big for your stomach.”

Willy simply belched and pat his now round stomach, with a wide grin on his face he sighed happily, “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this kind of family meal; I’m sure going to miss ‘em for a while.”

“You’re going to be staying with me Willy, it’s not like you’re going to have a shortage anytime soon,” Sorren responded before promptly flipping a pancake into the air.

Wily pointed his fork towards Sorren, “Ya well, it’s not going to be as nice without our lil girls around! I wish I could say it’d a lot more quiet, but my glass guard is leaving on that mission of theirs as well.”

Willy switced positions and his tone changed pretty drastically, as he pointed his fork in our general direction, “Jayna, Ryna, let’s go out to the market so you can get yerself some nicer supplies fer the trip with with ol’ ‘Cedar’ seeing ya won’t be taking The Wicked Serval this time.”

Ryna then leaped up into her seat, her ailment suddenly gone, “What’s going on? Shopping? Ship? Doing what? Where?”

 “I can’t have my girls going out on a journey without having the right supplies! You guys need some things fer your rooms as a ship needs to be like yer home away from home or else she ain’t no different than a dingy ol’ boat! And I need the best for my little girls!” Willy exclaimed loudly, before taking a moment to openly ponder, “I do wonder why they didn’t send me an’ Sorren on this mission though, we’d be perfect for this search-and-rescue mission.”

“Maybe it’s because they have been giving me enough missions that don’t fall under my branch and the last thing ship-wreck survivors need is a pirate ship pulling up to greet them. Watch Crows or not,” Sorren stated, clearly having a point.

“Speaking of supplies, I think I’ll be going with you, I don’t think what I have growing in the green house will suffice depending on the number of survivors,” Mama Cedar noted.

“It’s settled then! Get ready girls, we’ll go shopping and we may need to run a few….errands… depending on how much everything will cost probably best we get to that first,” Willy announced.

“Errands?” Ryna asked with one eyebrow raised, she knew what that meant.

“Yeah we’ll go pay a visit to those homes that had their windows smashed in from when ya two fought those bandits outta town, maybe give a few baubles to those boys Sorren won’t let me adopt, he says I’ve already done enough damage trying to raise a kid, I don’t know what he’s talking about! Do you Ryna?”

With that Sorren just rolled his eyes as he began to clean up, and Ryna responded with, ”It wasn’t THAT bad, I survived,” before she dashed out the door to run home.  Willy went to flirt with Sorren, “to make up,” with him before getting changed himself. I went upstairs to grab my wallet and have a change of clothes, a short sleeved-shirt for the warm weather, and some simple pants with a belt. I grabbed my trusty mottled green cloak that I brought my ancient home.

*~*

As we headed out to meet with Ryna, Willy gave Sorren a kiss goodbye and Sorren warned Willy not to make him bail him out of jail again, let alone us two, Joker landed on my own shoulder, and Sorren sent Muzu to watch over all of us.

As we opened up the door a small murder of glowing, purple-eyed crows awaited us- or more so me and Cedar outside, causing Willy to sigh disdainfully, “I guess Grandma Mora’s coming too.”

Which made all of the crows fly up and peck at Willy defiantly before two sat on Cedar and I’s shoulders, and the rest took to the sky, Cedar went out back to get supplies to run to the ship before she met up with us at the market, while we were off doing business.

The air was moist, and the sun shined down onto Silverport, it was a relatively cool day so the heat of the sun wasn’t so intense, the sky was clear and a light bright blue. The gulls and a few rune dragons took flight all over Silverport, the more clever ones looking and awaiting for opportunities to scavenge from any unsuspecting folk. The sea’s breeze felt nice and was ever present, however it wasn’t a particularly strong breeze either, and the hood of my cloak stayed on my head. The roar of the market could be heard in the distance and it almost mixed in with the sound of the sea. We took some of the alleyways and side routes to avoid most public view, as most people still aren’t the most welcoming to me, aside from many of Willy’s friends and former crew mates who’d bellow their greetings upon us passing. Some were construction workers, others had their own businesses or worked for others. The most friendly and cheerful of the bunch pulled us aside, a man by the name of “Sal” he was a former crewmate of Will’s, a Blacksmith then and now. However, most wouldn’t expect him to have the talent he does in his career, he had the appearance of a teen with long hair that was almost always pulled into a ponytail. According to Willy, he’s actually in his eighties, and had an encounter with the Ancient of Youth long before he joined Willy’s crew. The Ancient’s magic kept him from aging, with an ever-special lick, which will without doubt expand his lifespan as he could no longer die from aging, it was a curse and a blessing all at once. In short he was a human “pygmy.”  He usually pulled us aside to make sure we took fine care of our blades and other weapons, along with the chat. Today he had an order meant for Ryna for us to take with us as she had already paid for his service. From there, it was a straight shot to our meeting point. I didn’t know it then, but he would turn out to be an invaluable friend and asset.

It didn’t take long for us to arrive, only a five minutes’ walk from Sal’s workshop. The point was actually, the ship we were to aboard and travel on this upcoming weekend, the thick wood that made up the large vessel and runes carves into it, a protective barrier perhaps? The ship was named, Spirit of Brizo, a curious name, Willy has told me stories of that Ancient, I guess it fits a ship used to rescue missions and harbor many people within it. Willy whistled at it saying, “Look at ‘er, she’s sure a beauty, nothing in comparison to The Wicked Serval though. We’ll have a look-see later once we’ve got our little job done. Fer now I’ll give ‘er a quick inspection.” Willy said, deciding to take this time to investigate it and made sure it met his approval before he sent Ryna and me off on it, seeing a ship such as this took more wear and tear than most as it would even head into the heart of the worst storms, or glacier-filled seas.

It took a while for Ryna to appear, she was probably taking care of her magical companions for the morning.  Not wanting to stand around, Willy and I sat on the end of the pier, and stared out the sea in a peaceful silence. The waves were relatively calm, and otterlings could be seen fishing and playing out in the distance. I watched them in silence for a bit until the silence was broken by Willy, “You know, I miss the sea, as cruel ‘a mistress she can be. I’ve grown a bit too old to be going on adventures, meself, but I can always feel her callin’ to me, I’m sure Ryna feels the same,” Willy said, a calm warmth filling his voice until a slight frown crept onto his  face and then he sighed before wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me in to his side, “Sorren and I are worried though still, to be sending you two off on this journey, we love you both so much, we’d hate to see anything happen to ya, ya’ know? You’re both our little girls, whether Sorren will admit it yet or not. You’re like a daughter to both of us,” Willy looked down at me with a beaming grin, to which I responded with a nod and a quiet, “T-thank you, I love you both too.” With that Willy let go of me and stretched, “We worry about ye girls even though Ryna is about as good at sail’in a ship as I am, and she’s still got her youth to boot. You’re both young adults but as yer adoptive parents, we can’t help but see bumblin’ babes even though we didn’t know either of you back then!” Willy laughed before continuing on, with a wink and a smile before doing that thing where he messed up one’s hair, “Now don’t be afraid to pillage a ship or two to bring me home a souvenir!”

“Pa! What did I hear about souvenirs?” Ryna called from behind us, causing Willy and I to stand up to greet her.

“Nothing much, just make sure to pillage one eensy-weensy ship for yer ol’ pa, is all I ask before you to come back.”

“Pa, you know that’d only get the watch crows in trouble,” Ryna argued back with a giggle.

“Eh, the _monster-in-law_ can handle it, she loves you two too much anyway,” Willy responded only to get a few of the crows to just so happen to poop on him afterwards.

 “Euch, MORA! It’s going to take me days to get that out! This is a good shirt too!” Willy protested at the crows who only laughed in an eerily manner sounding similar to a human’s, and only causing Ryna to laugh as well, “You deserved that one, Pa!”

*~*

After a successful businies run and stopping to give a portion of the baubles from the down payment to a group of boys who lived on the streets much like Willy and Sorren did as kids some money, we walked our wallets and pockets filled with baubles down to the market.

 Once we reached it Willy announced, “Alright, Ryna, Jayna, have at it and look around! I’ll go get some absolute necessities for ya, and you figure out what all you want for yer rooms, that way you can have a bit of fun before you both have to go back into business mode.”

 “Thanks pa!” Ryna said before running off on her own, I walked around a bit disoriented, I wasn’t really sure what to do own my own.

So I wondered for a few minutes amongst the crowd who slid away from me, partly because what I was, and partly out of fear of the two glowing eyed crows I had on my shoulders. I wasn’t really comfortable until I could pick out a familiar face out of the crowd, Mama Cedar, who was standing in front of a stall with a wide array of stuffed animals or “plushies” as Ryna called them, she was chatting up the flamboyant and friendly merchant (when I look back, it was likely his “customer” act), who seemed to be the one more or less happily interrogating her. Both the man and Cedar seemed to be smiling but Cedar seemed to be a bit shy and very uncomfortable, as shown by her ears pointing downwards in comparison the young man’s over-welcoming demeanor, seemingly trying to “butter her up” as Willy would describe it.

“ _Really?_ Huh, I never imagined a silly little herb like that could do so much damage, I’ll have to make sure my little ones don’t get their hands on them!” The man exclaimed before having a look of shock and terror on his face, “Oh, I’m so sorry, ma’am, here I go asking you such personal and rude questions, like what an Elvian like you is doing so far away from home and how you keep your skin so nice and fair under the harsh sun and then I go off and talk about MY littles ones? I’m sure you’re here to buy some cute toys for your little ones! I saw you eyeing some of them up!”

“Oh no, I- um- I just-“ Cedar began seeming really anxious being put on the spot, before I stepped in, “She doesn’t have any children, at least none I know of, but I could tell she’d make a great mother if she really wanted to be.”

Mama Cedar looked at me very thankful, “Um, yes, you see, I don’t have a husband, but my um…. Sister is going to have a baby shower, so I wanted to pick up a few gifts for the baby.”

“Oh, well isn’t that precious!” The man remarked, “I’m sure you’d make a great Auntie, with all of the knowledge you have about kids and medicine! Which toys were you thinking of dear?”

Cedar, shakily pointed out a medium-sized pastel blue and white dire-wolf plush as well as a larger, more detailed otterling toy she said was for her older nephew.

“Oh, how sweet~! I think these would be perfect for a baby and a little boy! And I think you should listen to that little friend of yours, you seem like you’d be a great mother, if you were to start up a business as a doctor, you could easily adopt a baby or a child, there’s so many orphans in this world and some are dumped at orphanage’s steps as soon as they are born _or even worse!_ Or who knows maybe one day Asher will bless your door step with a child. That’s how my husband and I got our kids!” He proclaimed as he added ribbons to the toys and put them in a nice looking bag, which he set up on the counter, “I’ll just take the payment for the Direwolf, the otterlings _on the house for you, sweetie_.”

“Th-thank you, you have a nice day,” Cedar stammered, her face beet red, before turning and walking away as I followed.

“You too sweetheart!” The merchant called back to her happily.

“Cedar?” I asked now that we were out of earshot of the merchant.

“What is it Jayna?” Cedar asked, her face still beet red, but her voice sounding a lot more cheerful now she didn’t have to talk to a stranger.

“Why would you get a gift for a baby for cleaning it?” I asked curiously, having no idea what this….babyshower event was, causing her to giggle a bit.

“It’s a party for when someone who is going to have a baby, others give gifts in order to help the mother get supplies when she doesn’t have them, it’s also a big celebration for a pregnancy typically, unless they’re adopting or suddenly get a baby from the Ancient, Asher,” she explained to me with a faint smile and a soft gaze in her eyes. Since I first met her, she seems to have perked up and her features looked just a little bit healthier than before.

“So why did you get those plushies anyway? Do you like to collect them like Ryna?” I inquired curiously, I didn’t remember seeing her have any when I visited her in the guest room, and instead she kept plants there that disliked too much sunlight or ones that grew completely in the dark. The question seemed to catch her off guard and she seemed to get really nervous yet again.

“N-no… I guess I just saw them and thought they were cute is all,” she barely choked out, seeing she was uncomfortable I decided to drop the subject with, “Okay, I see, that make sense, they look really cute to me too, especially the dire wolf, it looked very soft.”

“HEY JAYNA!” Ryna shouted out as she shoved her way through the crowd and ran over to me and grabbed my hands, jumping up and down causing Muzu on her shoulder along with another of Mora’s crows, to wobble, “Come look at this one shop, it’s on one of the merchant ships, it’s all the way from Darak’i and it has some of the coolest, comfiest giant CUSHION _BEDS_!!”  With that she began to drag me off to the docks around the market.

*~*

After a fruitful day of shopping, we arrived at the Spirit of Brizo, which already had our beds, a small bookshelf, a giant crate of stuffed animals as Ryna bought out the stall I found Mama Cedar by delivered, as well as two desks and some other supplies; necessities such as medicines, food, and water.

As I boarded the massive ship for the first time I was greeted by its captain and crew, all friends and former crew members of Willy’s of course. The Ship’s build wasn’t far different from the Wicked Sea Serval, other than its massive size, extra rooms & stairs, and the runes carved into every board, forming a magical shield-like barrier. Willy and Cedar went to talk to the captain about plans while Ryna and I decorated their rooms, they were rather small but it was rare for anyone but the captain to ever get their own room. I had my bed squished into the corners away from the door and my small bookshelf I was going to use for the books Sorren had assigned me to do over to read as well as some notebooks and general homework supplies with, beside that and in-front of my door was my desk where I’d complete said homework.

After that I headed up on deck where Willy, Mama Cedar and now Sorren were talking to the captain and crew, Ryna was still making her “nest” in her room.

“So this is the _last ship the order has_?” Sorren inquired with a bit of shock in his voice.

“Aye, it is,” the man who looked like the captain replied, “Every last one of them sank, most of them due to Leviathan’s attacks, we only knew about them because crows would return with notes just before they passed. Something’s stirring, if the old owner of this ship wasn’t Brizo’s summoner before he passed this ship would have met the same fate. I’ve even come face to face with Leviathan, and it was none to pleasant.”

“ _Levianthan himself!?”_ Willy exclaimed, “Ye got to be pulling my leg!”

“I wish I were Willy, I haven’t slept soundly since that fateful day. Something’s got him all riled up, and I’m unsure of what, but _he’s more vicious than ever_ because of it! Not even Brizo’s waters have been safe from ‘im, some say the eleven ancients of the seas are scattered about, trying to soothe him” The captain stated, the grave situation weighing heavily in his voice.

“He must only spare this ship because of Brizo’s feelings then,” Cedar concluded her voice sounding oddly serious for once.

“I wonder if it has anything to do with what caused Snafu to go mad and attack Nawatt in the middle of Silverport of all places,” Sorren theorized aloud.

“I dunno, something bad is coming, and the Ancients know it. What else would cause them to go berserk like this?” The captain questioned, only for Sorren to shoot it down.

“It’s probably nothing they can’t handle, they might just be a bit on edge until it’s settled,” Sorren said smoothly, trying to bring an end to the topic before the man asks too much, “Mora doesn’t seemed concerned with it, not after talking to Seraphina at least, I’m sure everything will settle down soon enough.”

“I sure hope so,” The captain responded with some sadness in his voice, “Many great men have lost their lives due to this, the only time ships don’t get attacked is if they navigate the rivers or close to shore, or in our case if it has meaning to Brizo.”

When we got home, Sorren, Willy and Cedar all talked nervously about the upcoming mission.

*~*

 

I shot awake from the same nightmare from before, I looked around my surroundings to find myself in my room again, this would be the last night I’d spend in it as for tomorrow we would depart.

Tael was asleep on a pillow next to me and Joker was curled up next to Pipit, likely a goodbye snuggle seeing Pipit was going to stay here on land, as the sea and ships make him nervous. I quietly slithered out the bed and tip-toed to the door, and gently opened it to find a glowing pair of eyes on top of a barrel, I jumped and swore in my ancient tongue, but it was only Azara, stealing some glass shards in the middle of the night. Still too tired to really care, I just walked past her, wanting to avoid a fight with her as she growled at me not letting go of the shard she had in her mouth. From there I pondered how she didn’t cut herself upon amassing her hoards.

I creeped down both sets of stairs and made my way into the kitchen where I scooped myself some water from a barrel of spring water that Cedar brought with her when she came here. I drowsily sipped from my cup when I realized that there were lights coming from the greenhouse outback, so I went out to investigate.

 The air was cool but moist on this night and the calls of frogs, bats and the occasional sea serval and otterling filled the air along with the ever-present waves of the nearby sea. The grass and stepping stones felt nice and cool on my bare feet, the feeling was short-lived though, as I made the short distance from the back door to the door on the greenhouse Cedar took over. I quietly opened the door to find Cedar trimming bits off of plants and putting them in their own little sacks into a medical bag of hers. The door clicked shut behind me, causing her sensitive ears to twitch and for her to turn her head in my direction, “Oh Jayna, you’re awake. I was just gathering the last bits of herbs I needed for the trip, some things are best harvested at the dead of night when pods and flowers open up.”

I walked over to her and watched her work away on all the plants she had, “I had a nightmare and decided to get a drink. You haven’t been up all night, have you?”

“Oh no,” she responded as she clipped a white flower off of a plant, “I had Fiore wake me up, bribed her a bit to get her to do so. That way I could get some rest, get what I need for tomorrow, and go back to sleep.”

“That makes sense,” I concluded with a nod, “Do you need any help?”

“No, I’m fine, but if you aren’t going back to sleep for a bit, would you mind keeping me a bit of company?” She asked politely.

“Sure, I don’t mind, besides, I’d rather not go back to sleep with the nightmare on my mind, else I’d just have it again,” I sighed before taking a seat next to her.

“You know,” Cedar began, her voice filled with warmth, “I haven’t felt this good for a while, staying with you and the family has done a lot of good for my spirit. My magic has yet to come back, but before this, I spent many years not wanting the morning to come every time I went to sleep. Now I look forward to everyday, see what little events go on, see how I can aid any of you every day. It’s really been a joy.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” My voice came out quietly as I spoke, “But what happened that had you so down?” I asked curious and worried, but all I got in response was a shake of her head, “Nothing to be concerned about now, the past is in the past, and I’m just happy to be living in the present for once.” She set down her tools to hug me, “but don’t take it personally, I just don’t feel like bringing it up right now.”

“That’s fine,” I almost whispered, not wanting to be too loud right in her ear, “I’m just worried is all.”

With that Cedar let me go, but still kept her hands on my shoulder, “I understand Jayna, you’re a grown woman, despite how I or even Sorren and Willy may treat you at times, so it’s nothing I have to hide from you, I just don’t want to bring it up again and ruin this happiness while it lasts,” she said with a comforting smile, “Now let’s go to bed, we’ll be needing our rest for tomorrow.”

*~*

Gulls were soaring under the sunglight, following our ship show a while, likely hoping that it was a fishing ship that had finally gone out to sea. Cedar had to give me medicine for sea-sickness, which took a while to sink in, but after that I was up on deck, watching the sea before me, feeling the sea breeze blowing into my hair as we moved, a many of the sailors were bonded to magical creatures which they used to create wind magic to blow against the sail, which allowed us to travel at a remarkable speed despite the wind blowing against us. Joker took pleasure in flying above us, filling both of us with this intense feeling of freedom, only coming down on occasion to tease and “torment” some members of the crew. Most of the crew were able to keep up good spirits as they sung shanties as loud as they could It didn’t take long for the overall peace to be disturbed though.

“That’s it my boys!” I heard a familiar, female voice ring out, “At this rate we will make it there in half the time!”

I turned around to investigate, my boots making thumping noises and I walked on the thick, enchanted boards towards the helm, avoiding stepping on any otterling and sea serval tails on my way there. As I walked up the steps I say a figure laying on the floor, and as I got to the top, I realized it was the captain, he was hog-tied and gagged, and Ryna was at the helm, wearing one of Willy’s coats and hat. Either he had a part to play in this, or Ryna snatched them sometime before we left. She and Tael were cheerfully singing and leading the shanties while her golden-brown serval, Nyre, draped across her shoulder. Nyre’s eyes were half open, falling asleep atop of her loud partner.

“Um… Ryna,” I began as I approached her, “Why is the captain tied up?”

With that Ryna whipped around with one hand on the helm still, Nyre somehow staying perfectly balanced in the same position. “Well first, I wanted to take over and give him a break seeing I got a bit twitchy without me or pa steering the ship, so I asked politely if I could at least get dayshift, but he thought I couldn’t handle it, _sooooooo_ I challenged him to a duel and won. When I turned the ship towards my shortcut, he thought I was dumb for going against the wind, but I haven’t hatched out my plan yet, magic! I mean _how else_ do you think pirates can make a quick escape or get to point A to point B so quickly? SO ANYWAY I’m their Captain now, and I’m just letting them getting used to this for now. I can’t wait to show them how to make the ship go faster using wind magic while singing shanties to power them more! Besides with this method they can get off quicker and we can have more fun, and we have quite a few designated breaks too! ” Ryna chattered, barely breathing between each sentence.

“Umm…. Okay, but why is he still tied up?” I asked a bit concerned for the man, from what I remembered we picked up pace about an hour after departing this morning, now it was already about noon.

“OH! Crap I kind of _did_ forget about him!” she exclaimed in response before heading towards the man and cut the ropes with a knife and taking his cloth gag off of him. To which he sighed in relief, and got up and asked his tone filled with embarrassment that stained his cheeks red, “Hey girl, you can do as you please, just please try to keep this between us and the crew?”

“Sure thing, Cap’n, I doubt most people wouldn’t expect me to have some pirate-assassin skills on my belt~” Ryna chimed happily before skipping off back to the helm cheerfully, Nyre still undisturbed on her shoulders.

An overwhelming sweet smell overcame our noses ending the conversation as Mama Cedar walked up the steps out of the kitchen carrying a metal pan with a pile of round objects over it, handing one out to each member of the crew despite some seeming reluctant to accept them but not wanting to offend the woman either.

There were only a few left as she came up to us, a soft smile on her face,  “Jayna, Ryna, Captian, come take a cookie, I’ve made them with some berries I brought onto the ship, and extracted all the nutrients from the fruit skins of the fruit I served for breakfast, so it has some nutrition to it too. I can’t have anyone getting scurvy so I’ll be adding fruit and fruit preservatives into everything I can.”

“ _OH MY GOODNESS_! THANK YOU!” Ryna exclaimed as snatched a “cookie” off of the platter and put it in her mouth before taking over the helm once more. The captain and I slowly reached out and grabbed a cookie, and slowly extended to take a bite, as Cedar waited to see our reactions. The sweet practically melted in my mouth, the berries giving it a sweet yet faintly tart taste that was perfectly balanced with the rather simple taste of the hard, cake-like substance it was incased in. The captain and I were frozen on the spot, delight and awe plastered on our faces, to which made Cedar giggle a bit, leaving us with a “Don’t worry there’s more that I’ll pass around for dessert after supper.”

Time seemed to fly after that, and soon supper has come and gone, and most of the crew began to drink and gamble, with Ryna being merciless at poker. While I just watched many of the men of the crew losing their wages for a few hours, I eventually went in to do my homework and fell asleep on my desk, my thoughts slowly drifting into a dream.

*~*

Sorren and I were in a local shop in a small town, the business had all sorts of things as it was the go-to market for many accommodations, the baubles that made up my allowance rolled and bounced in my pocket as I explored the store with a goal in mind, and that was to find a gift of appreciation for him. The problem being, I can barely talk, let alone grasp what of any of these knick-nacks Sorren would appreciate. Out of everything I found a necklace with its charm made of Jacklope antlers, seeing they shed them so often, it wasn’t surprising such things exist. It was a bird on a strange object that looked like a lowercase T with a curved line on both sides at the bottom, he already had a necklace with his ring from “Willy” on it, so he could probably find some other thing to put it on instead.

“Oh I see now, are you getting a gift for someone?”

The voice came out of nowhere and startled me, I turned around to see a smiling old lady, “You can probably fit that small thing in a card if you wanted to, we seem to be out of gift boxes.”

“Card?” I tilted my head at the old woman in confusion.

“Oh, I guess they don’t give cards in the forest kingdoms, come here let me show you,” the lady chuckled in response, before leading me down a small isle, “go ahead and look through them, and then you can just pay me for the goods.”

I scanned the isle full of colorful papers, before looking back at the elderly woman, “What are…”cards?”

The elderly lady held her hand up to her mouth and laughed a bit before saying, “Oh silly me, I guess you wouldn’t really know that either. Cards are ways of showing appreciation to someone, they’re usually given alone or with gifts.”

“Oh, okay.” I said before I began to browse through the cards, then it caught my eye. It was very sparkly so I guessed it had to be the best one yet, it was too bad I had no idea what it said.  I pulled it out of its slot to see it had a lot of words on the front though, in some nice-looking letters, each one incrusted in small sparkly flakes? Were they diamond flakes? Crystal flakes? I hoped I could afford it.

“Oh, what a _lovely choice_ , I’m sure she will enjoy it.” The old lady sighed happily.

She? Sorren wasn’t a woman, but the older lady must of thought I was buying it for someone else or she needed a new pair of glasses, Sorren told me that a lot of elderly people have bad sight that only gets worse. Either way, I just ignored it.

From there she reached out and handed me a pink slip that she slipped the card into, “When you give it to her, make sure you sign your name on the inside, put the necklace in the card and put the card in the envelope and have her name one it.”

I nodded at her instructions as she pulled a sack out of her pocket and supplied it to me. “Here, so you can keep it a surprise. It’s on me. The card and necklace will be 15 baubles.”

Oh wow, that wasn’t too bad, I gave her the payment and had 5 baubles left.

She slipped the items in the sack and tied it up and handed it to me, thankfully she managed to do so right before Sorren came looking for me.

Suddenly and violently I’m thrown to the side, the force of it waking me up. I collided with the opposite wall of my bedroom. The ship was rocking violently and thunder boomed outside.

“Ain- Ain- Ain- ANCIENTS!” Tael chirped as he was being tossed around in the room with me, tying to fly as to not get smacked around at points. I snatched him out of the air and pulled him into my side, using the ship’s momentum to bust my door down. From there I stumbled down the hallway that lead to the main deck, thanking the heavens that I didn’t have to go through any larger rooms with objects lying around, threatening to knock me out or worse.

The winds were raging, and the sea threatened to devour our ship whole, and would do so it weren’t for the enchantments on the ship, a glowing pink, special barrier surrounded the ship, allowing it to be buoyant as a ball as waves crashed over it and threatened to knock it over in a wide variety of directions. I looked above me to see Ryna fighting to steer the ship out of the storm with the helm, everyone was on deck, including Cedar, using magic to try and propel the ship as quickly as possible.

I grabbed a hold of my blade which was thankfully in its scabbard at my side, and held onto the railing on the right side of the ship, a furious roar boomed directly over the ship, and Tael exclaimed, “ _Of all the Ancients Snafu had to pick a fight with_ , let alone  _here and now_!?!”  With that, my gaze was torn to the sky above me, which whirled above my head, this looked like no hurricane mentioned before. The large wooden ship was still being tossed violently around by the rampaging waves despite all of the spells and runes carved into it and cast on it, it was only thanks to them we likely haven’t sunk some time ago. Blood-curdling screeches and thunder cracks pierced and tore through the air as it exploded from above, the wind and sea howled around us, clawing at everyone’s skin.

 

 “Damn it all!” Ryna shouted, “Come on men, put all you’ve got into this one, or Leviathan will surely be eating us for breakfast!”

 It was 360 degrees of pure, relentless doom, as Snafu and Gerdyn fought above our rescue ship, we now realized we were the ones in need of a rescue now; suddenly a bright light flashed as lightning struck the sphere of magic that surrounded the ship, the barrier surely couldn’t take this blast. My thoughts began to race, everyone on here was going to die, and once again, I couldn’t do a thing about it. I cursed at this fate and for whomever branded me with this obvious curse. I stared at the now cracking barrier in rage and defiance. I didn’t know how, but I wasn’t going to let anyone go down this time. Before I knew it, the magical barrier shattered and then there was pain and darkness.

I awoke to find myself and Tael washed up on a black, sandy, lifeless beach, I tried to pick myself up, only to see giant _obsidian_ gates looming over me in the distance before I collapsed back onto the sand, the light fading into darkness once more, with only one through running through my head, “…..the…Ash…moor…” I had only recognized the location from my history lessons, and the fact I landed here filled me with despair before my consciousness completely faded once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized now after typing it all that this is kind of a rushed chapter, but I didn't have much of an idea on how to transition from point a to point b myself and only had little snippets of ideas.
> 
> But OH boy the next one though! 
> 
> Also this one doesn't have as much Joker, Pippit, and Tael in it I realized, they'll be more active in the next.
> 
> Also if you were wondering where Joker was during the final scene, he'd aready flown the coop without waking Jayna up. As a blood-bound crow, he aged quickly physically but I think their mental link isn't the best quite yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Original text from DA that still kind of applies here:
> 
> Not the most exciting of chapters seeing it's the first one and all... I hope it's not too bad and I might end up re-  
> writing it later depending on how I feel about it and if no one really likes it. I was very unsure of whether or not to  
> include canon characters in this because of my constant fear of making a character OOC in text for some strange reason.
> 
> I mean this story is pretty AU already (as you will learn as you progress through the story- it's not like a modern au or  
> anything like that you'll just--- you'll see X"D) and also I feel as though I will be criticized for including them and  
> not being entirely original but some of them I'm just too attached to really. That and I find it hard with the general  
> plot to not at least include seraphina- and besides, you know that the watchcrows would be in all this business. At least  
> from what I remember and re-read about them.... that's how I interpreted it anyway. (You ARE talking to the girl who has  
> no idea about the concept of flirting and only knows the extreme obviousness of someone being hit on.)
> 
> so yeah prepare for fun AU chaos
> 
> I also hope it turns out right from microsoft word...
> 
> I will add italics and what not for abbreviations and fix any typos when it's a better time of day and I'm more awake- sorry for any inconvenience. I'm really, really tired.
> 
> all characters, races, species, lore and etc (c) Benathorn 
> 
> OC's are mine kind of? it's hard to say when they're Bena's Races.
> 
>  
> 
> To Bena or any Eld mods- please notify me if I do something wrong- I will take it down,edit and rewrite the entire story if possible and if needed :) thank you
> 
>  
> 
> SPECIAL THANKS TO ELDEMORE USERS: Benathorn, Startedraining and Sphye for encouraging me to start this series~!
> 
> And Jendalie for favoring my works on DA, it's been a real encouragement, even if it may just be because they're Eld related, I'm not sure.


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